Team Carbon's November Necrosis Event report

November Event Report

   A few months ago, Titan and Hyperion, my two antweight combat robots, had their first combat robotics event. Though both robots did well, with Titan winning the antweight rumble, there's some room for improvement. 

    Only right before Titan's first fight, it finally clicked that there was an issue in the weapon system. As I was loading the bot into the arena, I was already thinking ahead to the necessary repairs and how to go about with them in the most efficient manner. The opposing robot was called Chopper, built by Andy Hedge, a returning competitor known for untraditional yet effective designs. Chopper has two light vertical spinners driven by a single motor along with an aluminum scoop down the center. This scoop ended up being super effective, and Titan's less-flush wedge (Without the "beak" shown in the picture) was no match for it. The light vertical spinners only caused cosmetic damage, but they acted as flippers which resulted in Titan's bar spinner contacting the floor, and it subsequently failed as expected (The shaft had a slight divot where a grub screw previously resided, compromising the shaft's shear strength). After being stranded, I uncouthly hit the wall of the arena with my arm in an effort to flip Titan back over, as I'd once seen another builder do with success. However, karma hit me when the EO recognized this as tapping out. Andy Hedge's young son, who was driving Chopper, gave me some good advice: "Next time make it flip over." - Thanks Andy's son. - - - Unfortunately, I don't have footage of this fight.

    After the disappointing but expected first loss, I disassembled Titan and swapped in my older but more proven weapon setup, which features 17-4ph SS as opposed to the chinesium shaft used on the compromised weapon system. Unfortunately, I couldn't abide by Andy Hedge's son's advice, as the stator I installed had a damaged motor lead. This minimized the current output of the motor, making the spin-up slower and with less torque. I also learned the wedge used in the fight against Chopper wasn't going to cut it, so I swapped to my second wedge. This wedge has bent flaps on the sides to defend against horizontal spinners, as well as a central beak to win the ground game. This worked spectacularly well for my following fights. 

    Next up was Hyperion, which was fighting Shredder 249 built by Team Fangs101. My plan was to navigate to the sides of Shredder to reach the exposed wheels, but I was also okay with head-to-head collisions, as the opponent's frontal forks were unlikely to cause catastrophic damage. Earlier in the day, I was having some technical problems as are natural with new bots. Hyperion shot sparks and smoke around whenever turning it on or off. I initially thought this was detrimental, but after talking with Kyle from Team Logic404, I learned it was unlikely to be anything serious.

    The match started and I was instantly impressed with the drivability of Hyperion. Unfortunately, my opponent drove well too and Hyperion was initially unable to reach the wheels of Shredder 249. But soon into the fight, Hyperion managed a semi-massive hit which damaged a drive side of Shredder. This turned the tides of the fight, and I was finally able to out-maneuver the opposition and disable it. 

    After knocking out Shredder 249, I was feeling pretty confident in Hyperion, and I was disregarding Titan. Unluckily, the robustness of Hyperion was to be tested sooner than I had hoped for, as it was up against Mr. Roomba by Team Logic404. The match started and Hyperion was quickly thrown across the arena. This repeated, with each hit fatiguing Hyperion further. Eventually, to my own fault, the far-too-short bolts mounting the drive motors vibrated out on the right side. After being hurled across the arena a few more times by the still-pristine Mr. Roomba, I decided to tap out. Even though I lost this fight, I was excited to see the weapon system functioning without issues. To get a bit more testing out of the weapon system, and to the annoyance of Bradley Warren Hanstad, I kept the weapon on for a few seconds after tapping out. After the match, I searched my toolboxes for the proper length drive motor bolts, but to no avail. All alloy 910 parts failed (And not along layers), so I'll likely use a different material in the future. 

    I hardly had enough time to charge the batteries before both bots were called up to fight. First Titan vs. Meatball, then Hyperion vs. Spatula City. Unfortunately, there's no footage of either fight. Titan beat Meatball by knockout and Hyperion beat Spatula City by JD. The drive issues from Hyperion's fight against Mr. Roomba lingered on but to a lesser severity. 

    Soon after, Hyperion was called up to fight DBSC. This would be the ultimate test, as both weapons line up with perfect engagement. The fight started and Hyperion was able to win the first two hits, chasing the overturned yet mobile DBSC. Fifty seconds into the fight, there was a massive hit that took a toll on both bots. Hyperion lost a drive belt and DBSC's ring gear was damaged. Fortunately, neither robot lost functionality and the entertaining fight continued. Further into the fight, the right drive motor bolts finally worked their way lose, and the motor spun freely, breaking the solder joints holding it in place. As this was on the belted drive side, only 1 out of 4 wheels were functioning. DBSC was able to capitalize, and Hyperion eventually lost signal, made some sporadic movement, then completely died. After over a year of competing, this was the first time I've ever been knocked out, which is an achievement in some ways. After the fight, Isaak Malers, the builder of DBSC, told me it might have been his favorite fight yet. Being a part of someone's favorite robot fight is also quite an achievement, especially when they've competed on Battlebots!

    The next fight was Titan vs. Cookie. Cookie is an FBS (Full body spinner). Because of this, I went with the beak wedge, as it's suited for horizontal spinners. I wasn't too scared of Cookie. I mean, it doesn't even have controlled locomotion, just bristles on the bottom similar to what you'd find on old Hexbugs. The fight started and right off the bat, Titan got an impressive hit, sending Cookie to the ceiling with enough might to knock Bradley's lunch off the roof of the arena. On the second engagement, Cookie was thrown across the entire arena, and ultimately landed on the spinner of Titan, where it then got its bristles knocked off. I then went in for a "final" blow, capsizing Cookie, where it was left stranded. By now I was feeling confident, so I decided to go in for another hit. The consequences were unexpected. Cookie gained surprising speed, so I decided to back off and spin my weapon down. Unfortunately, while I was spinning down, Titan got overturned itself. Titan can self-right, but the weapon stator I had used had a partially-chopped wire, so inadequate current was sent to the motor and it was unable to correct its orientation. This loss was a blessing in disguise, as Titan was relatively undamaged for the rumble. 

The Rumble

    With eleven opponents, waiting for the countdown to subside was quite daunting, but that feeling was quickly overwhelmed with confusion when it began. I was luckily left out of the initial box rush, and I was able to target Jeff Water's bot called Blue Waffle—yeah. I quickly flipped it over like a pancake. I then went after Chopper, who I had fought earlier in the day and had lost to. With my new wedge, Chopper was unable to seamlessly win the ground game, and I was able to hold it off, but without any significant weapon contact (Chopper is too well designed for Titan to get serious weapon engagement). While grinding away at the back of Chopper, the other bot I had a bone to pick with showed up and ground up Titan's back—Cookie! I turned around and popped the FBS, dealing inconspicuous damage. After a quick conflict with Lopper, the counterpart of Chopper, I got a perfect hit on Spatula City, launching them to the ceiling. Then after a tumultuous venture across the arena, where I hit at least three opponents, I was then grasped by Tommy Wong's bot, Surrenderbot. After putting Blue Waffle in its place (Upside down) then being pushed around by Surrenderbot again, then hitting Spatula City once more, I finally made contact with the bot rivaling Titan in weapon power: Smokescreen. As the first contact went in my favor, I pursued Smokescreen to the left of the arena, where my luck failed me and I was launched across the arena where I "Did the thing." But from the first hit, Smokescreens battery was extricated from the bot, only retained by the two thin wires. After 45 long seconds, Chopper freed me and I was able to rip the battery out of Smokescreen, where it smoked up, precipitating the concoction of the terrible yet suitable joke: "I guess that's why they call it Smokescreen." After a bit of fancy driving, I was finally able to get a decent but superficial hit on the side of Chopper. The favor was returned and Chopper hit Titan, but without causing much damage. Three minutes and ten seconds in, I began a megillah of attacks on Cookie, which ultimately resulted in the shell being torn from its body. This gruesome display brought about an exclamation of sorrow from many of the competitors. After flipping Surrenderbot, I was able to rip the entire weapon system out of Lopper, and shortly after, I managed to strand Chopper on the debris of another bot. This left just Titan and a flipped yet invertible Surrenderbot, but I was able to quickly strand Surrenderbot too. This left Titan as the rumble winner!